Last Daughter of Krypton
by Tavian6
Summary: Kara Zor-El is the last survivor of her people. When she finds herself on a new world, she must lean to deal with strange new powers.
1. Chapter 1

In the inky blackness space, a jagged remnant of a dead world drifted away from the remains of a collapsed star. This sliver of a planet had one smooth side, from which protruded a shimmering dome, like half a soap bubble sitting on a rock. Within this dome stood a city of spires that once glinted under the light of a red sun, but which were now shrouded in eternal night. The city was Argo, last city of Krypton.

Zor-El stood upon the balcony of his home and watched the gentle movement of the stars as the shard of Krypton slowly span through the void. In the days before his planet had died, he had always enjoyed standing in this spot to watch the sunset and enjoy the gentle breeze. There were no sunsets anymore, nor any breeze. Still, he took the time to stand there, it was the only time he got any rest.

There was never much time for rest these days. There was always something that needed doing. Life had become a daily struggle just so survive. The main thing was power. Without power they could not recycle the little water they had left or grow food in the little makeshift farms. Without power the air scrubbers could not make the air breathable. Without power the shimmering dome which enclosed the city fail, leaving the city dead and airless. Without power, they would not survive.

He wrapped his cape around himself for warmth and looked up at the shimmering dome which enclosed the city. It was the only thing keeping them separated from the void. Keeping the shield functional was what most of the city's power went towards.

There were huge generators in the hub of the city which powered the shield dome, but the dome itself had been experimental and the short term generators had been intended to be replaced with something more permanent once testing had been completed. Now they had no choice but to work out how to keep them going.

Looking at the dome his thoughts turned to Kandor. The great city of Kandor. Primary city of Krypton. The lost city.

Of course, he thought grimly, all the cities were lost now, But Kandor had been lost more than a decade before the death of Krypton.

He remembered the day, a decade ago a, when a great shadow had fallen over their world as a machine entity appeared above Krypton.

With all their technology and all their professing to be the greatest civilisation they were unable to stop the capital city being taken. Just like that, gone, leaving nothing but a crater, as if a giant hand had simply reached down from the skies and scooped it up.

The attack had left a jagged scar on the psyche of the people of Krypton. Fearful questions and angry demands had been flung at the planet's High Council who had responded with reassurances of stronger defences and more security. Those eyes which looked out now only scanned the skies in fear at the entity's return and did not heed the warnings of those who spoke of the sun's instability. Those who looked inwards only looked to strengthening their defences and ignored those who spoke of other dangers to the planet. Fear of the entity had blinded them to all other dangers, for the entity was real and immediate. Other dangers seemed distant and unimaginable.

Zor-El had been one of these affected by this state of fear. He had thrown himself into his work analysing the remains of the few of the Entity's probes, which the planets defence force had managed to destroy. It was hoped that this analysis would reveal some weakness of the Entity, which would allow them to defend against it, if it ever returned. He had sworn that no Kryptonian would ever again be taken again.

Analysing the entity's technology had yielded technological secrets, unknown even to the great minds of Krypton. And so the Entity's shielding technology had been discovered. Many years had been spent reverse engineering this technology, until finally they had built a protective energy shield large enough to cover the entire city. The shield itself had been a prototype, a proof of concept, a temporary device, build to be tested and the replaced with a better model designed to last.

When the tremors that heralded Krypton's destruction had begun, some initially thought that the entity had returned and in the panic the unfinished shield had been activated. When the planet was ripped apart, the shield had kept the city and the ground it stood on together as they had been flung away into space. They had built the shield to protect themselves, and it had, just not in the way they had imagined.

So now here they were, trying to survive in a dying city, on a shard of a dead world. Their people were gone, there was no-one coming to rescue them, their resources were dwindling and only a thin, untested wall of energy separated them from the hard vacuumed of space. Danger was now a constant, any moment could bring a disaster that could end it all. Even the very rock beneath their feel now put out a dangerous radiation that the population had to be shielded from. Some felt that there was no hope and that it would have been better to perish quickly with their world, rather than endure this slow demise.

The problem was how to make enough power. With the sun gone there was no solar energy, with the planet gone there was no thermal energy. Anything in the city that could create power had been gathered. Household generators, transport craft engines, even old children's science projects, if it could make power it was taken to the hub and plugged into the grid.

But it was not enough. It was never enough.

There were plenty of ideas about how to make power. Fusion, Fission, Harmonic Wave, Zero Point Energy, Gravity Harnessing, Phantom Generators, but the problem was building them. They either required materials they did not have, or would require a huge amount of energy in order to start, which the city could not spare.

So they debated endlessly, on the correct course to take. Whether to build ships to flee the city, or to go and search for resources to bring back or dismantle a few of the city's energy sources in order to build them into a new and better one. There were many ideas, but precious few answers.

Zor-El lowered his gaze from the stars to the spires of the city he called home. This was once a bright and lively city, now it was now cold and dark and quiet. He closed his eyes and imagined pleasant sunset and a warm breeze on his face.

He felt a warm hand on his arm. Opening his eyes, he turned to see his wife Alura, one of the two lights in his life that made existence bearable. She smiled a smile which drove the coldness from his bones and the darkness from his soul.

"It is time." She said softly, taking his arm and leading him back into the house.

They headed towards the entrance. Mar-En had called a meeting in order to put a request to Argo's ruling council and had asked Zor-El to attend. Mar-En wanted to shut down generator five so that he could replace a burned out component and get it back up to running at 100% capacity. Zor-El was on his way to testify that the remaining generators could handle the strain for a short time and that Mar-En was skilled enough to rebuild it.

Zor-El found that he now spent a lot of his time giving speeches to reassure or inspire the citizens of Argo, to give them hope that they could stave off their doom for a little longer.

Privately Zor-El agreed with those saying that their little world was unsustainable and that they should construct ships. The problems that kept cropping up could only be fixed for so long, all it would take would be one disaster to kill them all.

However, he was also acuity aware that there was absolutely no way that they could build a ship large enough to carry and support the entire population of Argo. He could not bring himself to doom the city's residents, even if it meant saving a few. The cost would be too high. So he would stay with his people and hope against hope that some solution could be found.

He looked down at the icon emblazoned in his chest, the symbol of the house of El. Hope... yes. But of course he had not left everything to hope and chance.

He thought, with no small amount of guilt, of the thing he was constructing in his workshop. Constructed using only materials from his home, but which perhaps could have been used elsewhere in the city. In the topmost room, which had once been his observatory, stood a small craft. Makeshift but sturdy. Big enough for one.

Selfish? Yes, of course. Not for himself, but for someone he cared about, but selfish none the less.

As Zor-El and his wife headed towards the entrance, he paused as he passed his daughter's room. She sat in there studying Hal-Ed's treatise on empathy as a cornerstone of civilisation, as she had been earlier when he had passed on his way to the balcony. She was now the youngest member of their race still alive. Every day he thought he should send her away from this dead city, but he could not bear to see her go.

He felt a squeeze on his arm and turned once more to his wife. She gestured towards the door and silently they both left their daughter alone.

As made their way from the darkened building Alura spoke. "We should wait no longer."

She turned to him as they walked through the cold night. "The craft is ready, we must send her away. Before some disaster befalls us."

He nodded. "Yes. Though it pains me to let her go... no, she will survive. We shall see to that." He placed his hand into hers. "We shall tell her when we get back."

Arm in arm they walked on through the darkness.

Alura was right, there could be no further delay, Kara must be sent away.

He would see her safe, his only daughter.

Last of his line.

Last of his people.

Last daughter of Krypton.

...

In the darkness of the void, Argo gave out very little energy.

Almost unnoticeable, but not quite.

Something had taken notice.

It began to move towards the city...


	2. Chapter 2

When Zor-El and Alura returned it was late. Not that you could tell any more. Time had little meaning now that there was no more day and night. People just worked until they were tired and then slept for as long as they could. Zor-El stifled a yawn, it had been a long 'day' and he and his wife were both exhausted. The debate had gone on longer than expected and he had to jump to Mar-En's defence at several points when aspects of his plan had been questioned. But, in the end they had been successful. The council had approved Mar-En's plan and it would go ahead in three days.

As soon as they returned to their residence, they went straight to their daughter's room. An important discussion had to be made with her, the sooner the better. When they got to her room, they found her curled up asleep on her bed, the small reading screen glowing softly as it lay next to her.

"Should we wake her?" Zor-El asked, softly.

Alura lent over the bed and picked up the reading screen. "No." She said, turning the small device off. "Let her sleep. Let her be free in her dreams."

Alura reached up to her neck and unclasped her cloak. She laid it over her daughter's sleeping form and whispered to her "Soon you will not need dreams to be free."

Kara murmured in her sleep. Alura rejoined her husband in the doorway. They looked back for a moment at their daughter, then left her to rest.

Zor-El went straight to their sleeping quarters. Alura could tell how tired he was. He was always tired now. As the inventor of the shield that had saved them, or in some people's opinion, doomed them to a slow death, he felt responsible for all the people living under it. That was why neither of them had ever considered joining their daughter in leaving the city. They had a responsibility and a duty to the people of the city. They would save them or die with them.

Alura entered her study and went over to her desk, placing the small reading screen back where it lived. On her desk lay a small plain box. She opened the lid and withdrew the single item within. She held it up and examined it in the dim light. It was a sweet nut. They had once grown in the gardens of their home, but now that there was no sun the plants had shrivelled and died. This was probably the last Kryptonian sweet nut in existence. Once it was gone they would only live on in the memory banks of the city. And if those failed, the Universe would never know that such a thing had ever existed.

Alura wondered if the Universe would ever know that Krypton had existed or if they would be forgotten as well, a light which sparked briefly, then fizzled out unseen in the darkness.

She considered the sweet nut which lay in the palm of her hand. To eat it would be to remove a unique item from existence, but to not eat it would mean keeping it until it became old and inedible, and what was the point in that?

She ate it and savoured the fleeting taste.

Walking over to her study's window, she gazed down at the city that was her home. Here and there she could see the dull red glow of artificial sun lights. They had been set up in what was once the city's parks, but which now had been turned into makeshift farms. What little food could be grown was rationed out. Luxuries were no longer an option.

She and her husband had opened their last bottle of wine several weeks earlier to commemorate the anniversary of the death of their world. That had been quite a solemn celebration. They had originally been keeping it to open in celebration of their eventual salvation. After a year had passed such hopes of escaping the city had faded.

The city and its people had survived the end of the world, but they were not safe. Every day the city stood on the brink of annihilation. Every day was a struggle for survival. Every day the city had to work to buy enough time to see one more tomorrow.

In the struggle to struggle to survive there was no time to just live. She had not lived for a year, she had merely existed.

She was exhausted.

She looked over what had once been a beautiful city. The shining spires no longer shone on the Sun, there was only night now. The city no longer glittered at night as all unnecessary lights had been turned out to conserve power and the remaining lights had been dimmed, plunging the city into eternal twilight.

She turned away from the window and headed towards her sleeping quarters. She did not want to think about it anymore. Most people did not, which was why everyone had thrown themselves into their work, to keep from thinking about their current existence. By keeping focused on what they could do, they avoided the creeping dread of oblivion.

So they held meetings, debated and made plans. In the last meeting the idea had been raised of sealing the buildings against the vacuum of space, digging tunnels and living underground, which would allow them to turn of the shield. Arguments against had pointed out the difficulty of producing enough element-82 shielding to protect them against the ground's radiation. Arguments for had pointed out that it would much easier with the energy saved from deactivating the shield.

Alura climbed into bed next to her husband. He was already asleep. Personally, she had plans to study the radiation. If she could find a way to protect against, or even neutralise it, they wouldn't need to manufacture thick shielding for the tunnels.

Tomorrow they would wake up and begin again the work of keeping their people safe, but for now there was time enough to rest.

Her mind wandered for a while as she lay in the dark, until finally sleep took her.

Alura slept and dreamed of Krypton

...

It approached Argo, scanning and analysing.

It spread itself wide and pushed on towards the shield dome.


	3. Chapter 3

Kara was pulled out of her dreams by somebody shaking her and calling her name. Kara shook the sleep from her head and pulled back the cloak she found herself under, trying to focus on her surroundings. Her mother was standing over her in the cold, dark room.

"Kara! Wake up, quickly!" said her mother.

"What is it?" asked Kara, pulling the cloak round herself to keep the cold air out.

She looked at her mother and was taken back to see her expression. Something was very wrong.

"You must come with me. Now." Said her mother, almost dragging her out of bed.

"What is wrong?" Asked Kara.

Her mother said nothing but hurried her along, out of the room and towards the observatory.

"Mother! What is happening?" demanded Kara.

"It is going to be alright." Said her mother. "It will be alright.

They hurried into the observatory. Her father was already in there, frantically working on some mystery object under the open roof. He looked terrified as well.

Kara was about to demand answers, but a movement in the sky caught her eye. She looked up and felt an icy hand grip her heart as she saw an old nightmare hanging above her.

It had returned.

The object before her father opened and he turned. "It is ready. Quickly, now."

Her mother grabbed her arm and rushed her over to the open object.

"Get in." Her mother said, quickly. "This will keep you safe."

Kara looked into the opening. The inside had clearly been designed for someone to lie in.

"Wait, what is this?" She asked her parents.

"An escape pod." Said her father. "This will take you somewhere where you will be safe, a place where you can live."

He tried to guide her into the pod but she resisted.

"What about you and mother?" She asked.

"I'm sorry, I could only build one." Said her father, still trying to guide her into the pod.

"It is enough for us to know that you are safe." Said her mother. "Please get in." She pleaded.

The thing in the sky was closer now. Faint sounds of terror echoed round the dark city.

"What about the people?" Demanded Kara. "We are not going to help them? You taught me it was our duty to help others!"

There were now tears of desperation in her father's eyes.

"I can not help them all, I can only help you. Please! There is no time!" Pleaded her father.

"But I cannot leave them! I cannot leave you! Please, do not make me leave you..." Kara begged.

Her mother and father exchanged a glance and both shoved Kara into the pod, her father locking the glass door in place. Kara beat her fists against the inside of the glass.

"No, please, do not make me go!" she pleaded.

"Kara." Said her mother. "You are right. You are meant to help others, and you will. You carry the spirit of us with you. Be a light in dark places."

"We both love you very much." Said her father. "Goodbye."

He activated the pod's launching mechanism. A stasis unit activated, sending Kara into unconsciousness. Her last memory of Argo was of her parents standing before her while a great shadow blotted out the stars.

As the pod rose Alura and Zoe-El watched after it. In the sky was the Entity, like an enormous grey skull, wreathed in tentacles. The little pod fled away from it.

Zor-El and Alura watched the pod until they could see it no more. Once it was out of sight, they held each other and waited for their fate.

...

The Machine Entity noted the pod's flight.

It sent out several probes to retrieve it.

Turning its attention back to the city below, it reached the energy shield that surrounded it.

It passed though the shield as if it hadn't even been there.


	4. Chapter 4

In the sky above Krypton's last city, an immense grey nightmare slowly advanced, the energy shield offering no resistance as it passed through. It hung in the stale air, above the darkened buildings and observed the people below. The people of the stricken city fled in terror, but there was nowhere to flee to. The shield that had kept them safe was now a prison wall. So they hid in their buildings and huddled together, cowering from the monstrosity. They all remembered this thing, and now the nightmare that they had all hoped would never come true was floating above them.

Only one craft fled from the Entity. A small pod, its powerful engines roaring through the air as flew away, towards the energy shield. Smaller craft, multi-limbed probes, were launching from the Entity and set off in hot pursuit of the pod. None would escape.

Reaching the shield, the pod didn't slow, but drove straight on towards it. A special generator in the pod began to generate energy at the same frequency as the shield wall. As the pod reached the energy shield it temporarily created a small shield around itself and passed through the dome like a wet needle through a soap bubble. The small pod was now flying through the cold silent vacuum of space. The pod's computer checked its pre-programmed coordinates, re-orientated itself correctly and began charging its jump engine.

Behind the pod, dozens of the Entity's probes shot through the energy shield, it offering them no more resistance than it had to the entity. They began to converge on the pod. Satisfied that the pod would be captured, the Entity turned its full attention back to the city below. Vast metallic tendrils slammed into the edges of the rocky shard on which the city stood, securing it in place and sending chunks of rock flying in all directions.

The little pod bobbed and weaved, trying to keep away from the probes while it charged its jump engines. The pod also had to contend with the chunks of rock flying away from the city. Avoiding the rocks and the probes, maintaining its precious cargo, charging it's jump drives and plotting a course was taxing the pod's little computer almost to the limit.

But try as it might, it couldn't outrun the probes for long enough.

One of the probes reached the pod and fastened itself on to the back and began pulling back, slowing it so that the other probes could reach it. If they reached it they would slice open the pod, destroy its engines and drag it back to the Entity. Unacceptable.

The pod's computer made a decision to take a calculated risk.

It suddenly jinked to the side, putting itself in the path of one of the flying chunks of rock. The probe hanging on had no time to react before the rock smashed it into the back of the pod. The back of the craft was now a twisted mess of rock and metal.

The pod's computer did a quick damage check.

Containment: Stable

Life support: Stable

Main engines: Offline

Secondary engines: 47% capacity

Jump engine: 72% capacity

The rest of the probes closed in but it was too late. The jump engine released its energy and pushed the little craft through the fabric of space. With a flash the pod was gone. The remaining probes scanned the area. Finding no trace of their target, they turned back.

The Entity noted the disappearance of the pod.

Unfortunate. But, no matter. With the amount of damage sustained by the pod, it would be unable to get far.

And the main prize lay below.

...

The Entity floated away from the shard, upon which the last city of Krypton had once stood.

The city of Argo no longer stood on the shard.

All that was left was a crater.


	5. Chapter 5

In the void between stars, a small craft flashed into existence.

Its computer did a quick self diagnostic. The damage it had sustained had been significant and a full jump had not been possible. It re-orientated itself with the stars to ascertain its location and re-plotted its course while it charged its engine for the next jump.

It would be a difficult journey. As it had to maintain what power it had between the stasis and life support systems and the drive system, it would have to make many short range jumps. But it knew where it was going.

Once the jump system was sufficiently charged it made another jump, and the star it was travelling towards came a little closer.

After hundreds of such jumps the craft found itself within the orbit of the star's satellite planets. According to long range probes that had relayed this information back to Krypton years ago, there should be a planet in this system that matched the pod's needs.

Its scanners confirmed this, showing a rocky world nearer to the star which matched these readings. This planet was in the correct orbital range of temperature, acceptable atmospheric mix, evidence of water. Perfect for sustaining life.

Its scanners also showed some unusual radiation emanating from the local star. The little yellow star was giving out readings vastly different from Krypton's own red giant, however analysis showed that it would probably not be dangerous to Kryptonian physiology, and besides, there was no time to find and travel to a different star system.

With its passenger still safely in stasis, the pod limped on, using what little engine power it could muster. Without its main engine, it took a long time. It kept a close watch on its falling energy levels, the safety of its passenger its primary concern. It had to reroute some of its little remaining engine power to keep stasis and life support functional, but lessening the engine power meant the journey would take longer. It was a very fine balance to ensure its passenger would reach the destination safely.

As it neared the planet, its sensors picked waves of electromagnetic signals, evidence of intelligent life. The pod did not waste energy trying to analyse them, but pushed on towards the little blue/green world.

The pod was now sliding down the gravity well of planet. It transferred all remaining energy from its engines to its retro thrusters to stabilise and slow its descent.

As the pod entered the upper atmosphere, the star's light disappeared behind the planet. The little pod continued to fly through the world's shadow and aimed down towards the centre of a large landmass.

The pod ploughed down into the planet's atmosphere, its nose glowing white hot as superheated air flashed around it. Its thrusters fired wildly, trying to keep itself under control.

Finally, its thrusters and the air resistance had slowed it sufficiently so that it did not glow with heat. It passed through a layer of clouds and emerged into the pouring rain.

With the ground coming up fast, it put everything it could into its retro thrusters. The pod flattened out and ploughed into the soft ground, tearing a huge gash in the soil, before finally skidding to a halt.

It ran a quick diagnostic. Its passenger was safe, but the pod's systems were beginning to fail.

Quickly, it began to end the stasis. As its systems shut down, one by one, it registered heartbeat, breathing and cognitive activity from its passenger. Its passenger was alive and well and coming out of stasis successfully.

Its mission had been completed.

As much as it could, the pod's little computer system felt a sense of achievement.

It shut down for the last time.

...

The pod lay in the dark and rain.

Life stirred within.


End file.
